Sorrowful Time at Disney

I am sure that most everyone has heard at least in some manner, of the tragic accident at Disney World this past Sunday. Sunday, July 5th, around 2 am, one of the WDW Monorails , after dropping off guests at the TTC, Ticket & Transportation Center, was switching tracks to another loop ( which is done by passing the switch, than backing onto the switched track), the switch did not effect the change and the first monorail, thinking it was going onto another track, reversed and hit another monorail entering the station. Because of the late hour, only one family of six was traveling on the monorail. None of the guests were injured, but were upset and scared by the experience… however the approaching monorail driver was killed in the accident. The driver of the backing monorail that was reversing through the station, was shaken up from the collision but not injured. It certainly appears that something beyond the drivers went tragically wrong. The tragic death of a fellow cast member (we are seasonal cast members at WDW ) is no doubt affecting everyone at Disney and heart felt condolences go to the family for the loss of their son, a college student, only 21 years old. WDW has a fleet of 12 Mark VI monorails in service since 1989. The monorails are not only a very efficient mode of transportation, but are an attraction to themselves. The triple safety features on each monorail makes an accident like this inconceivable. A total of 38 years without any serious accident… and a 99.9% reliability rating for 18/7/365 service… well… pretty well make it the safest mode of transportation ever. Moving one hundred and fifty thousand guests everyday… safely and efficiently ( that’s over 500 million in the past ten years safely transported). Still barely pass the half way point of the useful life expectancy… they remain a Icon of Walt Disney World and will hopefully return to service as soon as they are determined to be safe. We have ridden many times in the monorails cockpit and look forward to doing it again!

The news media is covering the story ( just Google it ) with numerous variations and accounts… so there are several contradicting “facts” as you read various news media versions (they media originally reported that is was the red & blue monorails… now it said to be pink & purple in the official OSHA report )… but there were some correct facts… it was 2am, two monorails collided, and one cast member died. Being an interested party, I was interested in FACTS as to what happened. It would be nice to have the media get the facts correct and not report incorrect “facts” or accounts of what happened. It would also be a relief if they would just stop sensationalizing and interviewing mindless witnesses that were not even near the accident, have no factual information, and express their feelings of how endangered they now feel because there was an accident. With that great reasoning powers that these people obliviously posses… perhaps they should never get on an airplane or any other vehicle since they too have had accidents… and with far more frequency than this. Hopefully amidst all the mindless, careless, negative conspiracy cover-up theory's and chatter on the internet… everyone can just pause and respectfully consider the family that lost their young son. I have seen the aftermath photos of the collision… but like many others… will not publish them out of respect… the pictures serve no useful purpose. Prayers to the Family.